Unstable slip pulses and earthquake nucleation as a non-equilibrium first-order phase transition

Abstract

The onset of rapid slip along initially quiescent frictional interfaces, the process of `earthquake nucleation', and dissipative spatiotemporal slippage dynamics play important roles in a broad range of physical systems. Here we first show that interfaces described by generic friction laws feature stress-dependent steady-state slip pulse solutions, which are unstable in the quasi-1D approximation of thin elastic bodies. We propose that such unstable slip pulses of linear size $L^{\ast }$ and characteristic amplitude are `critical nuclei' for rapid slip in a non-equilibrium analogy to equilibrium first-order phase transitions, and quantitatively support this idea by dynamical calculations. We then perform 2D numerical calculations that indicate that the nucleation length $L^{\ast }$ exists also in 2D, and that the existence of a fracture mechanics Griffith-like length $L_G<L^{\ast }$ gives rise to a richer phase-diagram that features also sustained slip pulses.

arXiv commentUpdated Figs. 3, 5 and S3, added scaling theory for $L^{\ast }$, added references

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Cited by in corpus (19)

• The emergence of crack-like behavior of frictional rupture: Edge singularity and energy balance
• How collective asperity detachments nucleate slip at frictional interfaces
• Earthquake Nucleation along Faults with Heterogeneous Weakening Rate
• Finite element modeling of dynamic frictional rupture with rate and state friction
• The emergence of crack-like behavior of frictional rupture: The origin of stress drops
• Stability of pulse-like earthquake ruptures
• From molecular to multi-asperity contacts: how roughness bridges the friction scale gap
• Velocity-driven frictional sliding: Coarsening and steady-state pulse trains
• A minimal model for the onset of slip pulses in frictional rupture
• Frictional state evolution laws and the non-linear nucleation of dynamic shear rupture
• Experimental evidence of seismic ruptures initiated by aseismic slip
• Scaling theory for the statistics of slip at frictional interfaces
• Onset of sliding across scales: How the contact topography impacts frictional strength
• Stick-slip in a stack: how slip dissonance reveals aging
• A minimal model for slow, sub-Rayleigh, super-shear and unsteady rupture propagation along homogeneously loaded frictional interfaces
• Self-healing (solitonic) slip pulses in frictional systems
• The dynamics of unsteady frictional slip pulses
• Unsteady slip pulses under spatially-varying prestress
• Spatio-temporal chaos of one-dimensional thin elastic layer with the rate-and-state friction law